In bloom

My garden is starting to look good and I am very excited about it. Some of my new plants have flowers blooming. Here is one of my purple day lilies:



Isn't it beautiful. Too bad day lilies only bloom for one day, but there have been several blooms so it seems that they are doing well and acclimating to their new home.

I am especially happy that one of the plants I planted last year survived despite my neglect. I have my first gardenia bloom:



I absolutely love gardenias, they are so fragrant. They also remind me of my childhood. Growing up we had gardenias growing right outside our front door. I love their smell and I am very sentimental about them. I can't wait to see more blossoms from my gardenia bushes. I have 3 of them (I lost one due to neglect) and I see buds on 2 of them so I think they will be blooming soon! I am so excited.

How my garden grows

Or doesn’t grow….

Last year with the help of my mother-in-law, I started to garden. I planted several plants in front of our house. Apparently I didn't do very well. I had a few casualties due to my neglect. This spring, my garden consisted of a ton of weeds, about 3 ft tall, and some dead plants. I guess I should have spent more than a month out of the year tending to my garden. I have learned from my bad ways and I have turned a new leaf, so to speak.

I've spent the past several weekends weeding and cleaning up my garden. Underneath the awful and invasive weeds, I was able to save a few plants that I planted last year. I planted a few new plants that I will attempt to better care for. I am more determined to have some pretty flowers grow this time around and I will hopefully be better at maintaining my garden, meaning that I will have to tend to it more than just once a year.

In my research fashion, I have been doing my research and I devised a garden plan this time around. I've tried to select flower and plants that will do well in the area that I have to grow my garden (the west side of the house). I hope this time around I can do a better job at keeping my plants alive.



My moms (Mama Bear and my mother-in-law) both have green thumbs. Mama Bear can grow anything and everything. The last time I was at her house, she sent me home with some flowers to plant since she is able to grow so many. I came home with a few geraniums and an orchid. Now I have killed many orchids, so I hope that I can get this right. Mama Bear claims that the plants she gave me are easy to care for, only time will tell. I do have an orchid that I received as a birthday gift in my office at work and so far so good. (But then again my student was the one who regularly watered and took care of it for me.) Somehow I am not sure that I got the green thumb gene. I’m working on it, this overachiever will not accept failure!

I would really love to have some beautiful flowers in my garden. Hopefully, I can follow in the footsteps of my mommies who both have green thumbs. Grow, garden, grow!!!!